Days of Angst and Coffee

Last night we had breakfast for dinner, french toast and turkey sausage links. This usually happens when I've lost track of time and have to make dinner as I see the kids driving down the road from softball practice. I had a good reason yesterday, because I spent all day reading this:



The Marbury Lens, which comes out in November, is the latest by Andrew Smith, a fellow Feiwel and Friends author. ( And may I just say, does anyone have better covers than F and F? Don't think so...)
As soon as I heard about this one, I'd been wanting to read it. Here's the back cover:

Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury.
There is war in Marbury. it is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But he's trying to kill them.....

So as soon as I noticed Andrew on his Facebook page talking about ARCs coming soon, I started annoying the cool people at F and F to send one my way. Yesterday, I sat down about 2pm with this book and basically didn't move off the couch until I'd finished. It's no secret I'm a huge Stephen King fan, and this book is as close as it gets to Stephen King writing for teens. Seriously. I could start with the comparisons, the shades of The Dark Tower or The Talisman or Gerald's Game or Misery, but I won't. It should be enough for this Constant Reader to say : Holy Crap, this was a frickin' good read.  When I was fifteen, I read my first Stephen King, The Stand,  and it rocked my world. My prediction is that The Marbury Lens  will rock many a teen reader's world...